Reclusive heiress Huguette Clark was fond of keeping houses in a high state of preparedness for no particular use. That includes a huge apartment in Manhattan, an empty estate in Westchester and a home in California that appears to be getting revamped into some sort of a museum. Though Clark spent the last 20 years living in a hospital room, her homes were always in fine fig. Except for the Corcoran, it would appear that none of Clark’s art will be seen by the public or available for sale:
Clark, 104, had an extensive art collection in her 42-room apartment on Fifth Avenue. The art, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and John Singer Sargent, is being transferred to the Bellosguardo Foundation, which is named after her 24-acre estate in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Except for the Monet, Clark’s entire collection of art, as well as her rare books and Stradivarius, will be housed at Bellosguardo, according to the will.
The Monet was the only work separated from the heiress’s collection. Clark purchased the small 1907 canvas in 1930 from Monet’s gallery in Paris. The work was last publicly displayed in 1925.
Huguette M. Clark bequeaths $25M Monet painting to Corcoran (Washington Post)
